Tuesday, February 05, 2013

Book Review: Every Day

Tuesday, February 05, 2013



Title: Every Day
Author: David Levithan
Genre/s: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Romance

Synopsis:

Every day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl.

There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere.

It’s all fine until the morning that A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone he wants to be with—day in, day out, day after day.

My Thoughts:

Imagine yourself waking up each morning in a different body, in a different life. Imagine yourself being  someone else every day. Nothing is permanent, nothing stays forever. Imagine yourself living a life you will never have because you can only stay for one day. It's probably a lonely life, right? Well, that's the life, A has.

“I am a drifter, and as lonely as that can be, it is also remarkably freeing. I will never define myself in terms of anyone else. I will never feel the pressure of peers or the burden of parental expectation. I can view everyone as pieces of a whole, and focus on the whole, not the pieces. I have learned to observe, far better than most people observe. I am not blinded by the past or motivated by the future. I focus on the present because that is where I am destined to live.”

He is a drifter. He doesn't know why his like this and he stopped figuring it out a long time ago. He's usually careful about his actions, trying not to disturb the life he inhabit. But it all changes when he met Rhiannon. For the first time in his life, he hoped he could have a life of his own and have a normal life.

“This is what love does: It makes you want to rewrite the world. It makes you want to choose the characters, build the scenery, guide the plot. The person you love sits across from you, and you want to do everything in your power to make it possible, endlessly possible. And when it’s just the two of you, alone in a room, you can pretend that this is how it is, this is how it will be.” 

I find it really easy to connect to A's character ever since the beginning of this book. He just has this kind of unfathomable wisdom that is really interesting about. It was fascinating for me to hear about his insights, especially about love and life in general.

“I want love to conquer all. But love can't conquer anything. It can't do anything on it's own.
It relies on us to do the conquering on its behalf.”


And it was really heartbreaking to see how much he was trying to have a normal life with Rhiannon. The way he act and think about every single day after he met Rhiannon, showed how much he yearned for love and acceptance and how desperate he was to have a stable life.

“People are rarely as attractive in reality as they are in the eyes of the people who are in love with them. Which is, I suppose, as it should be.” 

But as much as love for A to have a happy life, I think Rhiannon is really not the best girl for him. I really pity her because she loved a jerk like Justin who always treated her like crap. Yet I also think that she deserved being treated that way because she's afraid of taking risk. I'm not being mean or anything, I'm just being honest.

“If there's one thing I've learned, it's this: We all want everything to be okay. We don't even wish so much for fantastic or marvelous or outstanding. We will happily settle for okay, because most of the time, okay is enough.”

Overall, I enjoyed this book but I'm unsatisfied with the ending. I'm a bit frustrated about it actually because I still have a lot of question and they were all left unanswered. I just wish there was a wrap-up at the end so that I could have a sense of closure. Anyway, that's the only issue that I have with this book.

I would recommend it to everyone who loves thought-provoking and insightful story about life and love.

My Rating
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